


H4K1 Dan

by ThreeFiveFour (orphan_account)



Category: H4K1 Dan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-15 04:25:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10550034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/ThreeFiveFour
Summary: This is just so I can write this on my phone. Might eventully be updated. Please don't read.





	1. Consider Yourself

Kasu Melaglal was probably not the only person who was bored that dreary Saturday morning. The rain had been coming down rapidly the previous Friday and it hadn’t stopped yet.. They looked out their window and groaned. They should’ve been getting groceries today,but their plans may have been shattered. Kasu turned their head back to their laptop screen.

It’s been turned down to the lowest brightness it could possibly be but it’s still feels blinding. Kasu doesn’t know whether it’s from sleep deprivation or from how early it is. With a quick glance at the time - 02:34 - they realised how both possibilities are more possible than they’d originally thought. They ran their hand through their strawberry red hair before clicking on a random forum topic to skim through. A few more minutes wouldn’t kill them, right? 

It was a roleplay set in the mid 3020’s. With only half interest and their hand on their cheek, they spend about ten minutes clicking through the posts. Or maybe slightly longer, considering the size of the posts. 

The main gist of it is that there is a team of teenagers working to eliminate the evil government from time travelling to the past. While their idea was mildly intriguing, they were in five other roleplays already and there’s only 24 hours in the day. They left a quick snark once they were finished, and then left the topic to search for another. 

It’s become a habit for them to do this while waiting for Rain to reply- and she was so damn slow at this too. Perhaps because she actually had a life. 

They were trying to come up with ideas on what to do on another roleplay, this one about trying to escape a monster filled city.. It’s one of the most fun things they've had the honor of taking part in and Rain agrees. She says that the most fun part for her was getting to develop hers and everyone else's characters alongside finding out the backstory of the city and world. Kasu says that the most fun part is the small mini missions that go on in the background of the normal roleplay. They’re a lot of fun to complete as well as the occasional main mission.

The last message Kasu sent to Rain was on whether or not they should try to complete the mini mission they currently were on or to scrap it and wait for the main mission that was coming in a few days. They were about halfway done with the mini mission but how long the rest of the mission would take wasn’t exactly clear.

Kasu personally didn’t really care on what they picked, but since the two of them normally didn’t care, they decided to just say to finish the mini mission as then they could at least get the reward for finishing. Sure, if they didn’t finish it on time they wouldn’t be allowed to take part in the main mission, but the reward could be helpful to both of their characters. Currently, both of their characters had to fight an extra ten monsters after failing to complete the last mini mission and Rain’s character, Hydrangea had taken a massive hit after protecting Kasu’s character, Amaryllis. 

This meant that Hydrangea was 10% more likely to attract monsters to their location than the rest of the characters until she was healed. The percentage increased by 1% with every member of the group with them. So it was pretty tempting to leave her behind. However, being alone increased the chances even further, so it was more logical to stay together.

They click on another topic at random and start to skim it before realising the title of it. “Moderator Post - Nazli Clarke on Brainwashing”. Moderator posts weren’t that common and were only made when one of the moderators wanted to announce something to the forum users or one of the moderators wanted to talk about an issue that had been bothering them. 

Nazli Clarke was one of the mods who made sure that everyone made sure to follow the rules, sometimes making their own games for people to play. Rain had played one of them when Kasu was on holiday to Turkey. She said it was okay as the idea was great, but the execution was a bit flawed. Nazli was also known for dealing with the more serious topics in mod posts, unlike the others, who preferred posting cute and fluffy puppy pictures with the occasional reminder for people to not be mean.

With a slower skim of the post, Kasu had to stop to process some of the information. It was talking about some of the brainwashing incidents that had been happening over the past three months. They’d seen some of the news articles about the subject but wasn’t that interested. The brainwashing was a joke at best, and she didn’t really care about her own life- losing control of that wouldn’t be too bad. Their mother had called them to make sure they were okay after Kasu’s Aunt Alisa had been brainwashed. Their aunt had suffered from depression even before the incident when their mother and her were teenagers.

Their mother had called to ask them to come to the hospital after Alisa tried to commit suicide. Kasu didn’t know where she was now, a month later, but they were certain she probably wasn’t back to as normal as she could get. Their cousins, Daniel and Mia had also gone missing after the brainwashing. Maybe that was why their aunt had tried to commit suicide? Shaking their head, they cleared that thought from their mind. They could think about that later. Didn’t concern them much anyway. Alisa was that aunt who was nearly always bugging them to get a significant other. At this point they were pretty much an aromantic.

The post was also filled with a lot of editing from the community. Just because she was a moderator didn’t mean that she knew everything. They recognised one of the names from the mid 3020’s post. It seemed like it was the original creator's name but they weren’t to sure. For all they knew it could’ve been the creator of the worst character so far, Hioko.

From skimming, Hioko wasn’t fleshed out at all and didn’t give other people much area to flesh out what they didn’t know - there was a lot left to interpretation. To add onto that, the creator supposedly got mad when people got things wrong when they didn’t even add the information in the first place.

Those kinds of people were some of the reasons why the forums were a bad place. They reduced the amount of fun that people could have and on the occasion could drive people away altogether. It had happened to Kasu a couple of times, but on the whole it was resolved quickly. They shook their head. Best to get back to the post. Hioko’s maker was a horrible person and they couldn’t remember why they had bothered to care about them in the first place. 

She had summed up the entire post at the bottom with a TL:DR. Reading it aloud, they said, “In short, the whole incidents began 3 months ago with a small group of people, eventually escalating to an entire small building of around 50 people a month ago. People also started to disappear in that same month. Police have been informed and are working to solve the case as quickly as possible and welcome help from all and any sources. - Nazli Clarke.” 

Kasu took a few deep breathes in before looking back at their laptop screen. A new message had appeared in their inbox. Rain had responded to their message while they had been reading the forum post. From the quick preview, they could already see her overuse of emojis. That put a smile on their face. They began to click on the message to see her full message, but then they read over the forum post again. They clicked the favourite button before clicking on the read more.

Outside, the rain began to stop slowly revealing a dull sunrise. When Kasu opened the curtains three hours later, their eyes burned from the sudden light. 

But they were happy.


	2. Fight For Me

Rain Elsner was the brightest person that Kasu knew, which wasn’t saying much recently. She’d been one of their only friends who had been determined to stay in touch after she left Uni.

A lot of their friends hadn’t meant to forget about them, but an old friend was easily thrown away with the other piles of stress they had to deal with. They were quite honestly glad they had dropped out.

 

Being forgotten only stung for a little while. Making new friends was a cake walk! On the internet of course. Kasu wasn’t entirely antisocial, but sometimes it felt easier to slip away onto the internet and chat with people from around the world. Hell, maybe not even people. Maybe robots. Who knew? .

 

Of course, Rain wasn’t one of the people who allowed Kasu to easily slip away from memory. She made an effort to at least call Kasu at the end of every week, or to give them a text at the end of every day. Sometimes, she’d drop by their house and bring them along with her on trips. Kasu would’ve come to visit her, but they’d rather avoid the complications of people recognising them from the semester they spent there.

 

Today, Rain had brought them along to the taekwondo place that she often taught at. The kids there were lovely and Kasu enjoyed helping her with teaching. Rain was already dressed for the job when Kasu got there, with her trademark grin splashed across her face.

 

"Hey Kas! Glad to see you finally made it here." She smiled pulling them in for a hug. The two embraced for a moment before they broke away with smiles. Rain tugged on their hand before dragging them straight to the mats. Normally, Rain asked them to change into appropriate clothing for the activities either before or at the place. Since they prefered to do it at home, that was almost always the case.

 

However, this time, they had gone straight to the mats while still wearing their normal outfit. It was just a t-shirt and shorts, but it didn't feel appropriate next to Rain's uniform, black belt tied around her waist.

 

"Rain… Are you sure I don't need to get changed?" Rain looked confused before breaking out into a laugh.

 

"Of course not! You're not taking part this session - we just need an extra person to help put out and take apart the equipment." She punched their shoulder lightly. "Unless, you’d actually like to get your butt beaten up again?"

 

Kasu shuddered. That was the day that they had realised how lacking in upper body strength they were. Of course, that nasty kid had inspired them to try going to the gym at least once a month, so some good did come out of having an 8 year old kid beat your butt into the ground. Only a little, though. They still wanted a rematch of course.

 

The two of them waited for the class of kids to come out of the changing rooms. Rain allowed the kids 15 minutes to get changed. Considering that a lot of the kids just messed around in there for at least 10 minutes, this was often way too generous. They had to promise not to tell her, but she had once or twice gotten into some of the kids’ card tournaments. Luckily for them, no one had snitched on them for a while now, even though Rain usually just made the kids let her play if she caught them. Unluckily, she was way too good at cards, so most of the time the kids prefered to play against someone they had a chance at beating - Kasu.

 

In the time that they were waiting, the two of them decided to talk about the roleplay. Rain said that she was fine with completing the mini mission before the main mission, so they were trying to work out a strategy to beat it. The mini mission was about finding a certain lost item from one of the original characters of the creator. A lot of the other teams had gotten stuck early on and had given up, but Rain and Kasu had found a lead and spent that time following it. It eventually turned out to be a fake, though. That was super annoying. Rain raged about it for at least five minutes, or as she put it - what felt like an hour.

 

It didn't take them long to drive the conversation to somewhere else. Rain mentioned one of the idols that the both of them liked - Lome. Lome was apparently from France and had come over to England to do some singing. Their songs were met with an overwhelming audience and praise and they carried on singing for the people of England for a year before officially stating they were moving there.

 

Rain's favourite songs were the ones that weren't so focused on romance and instead of phobias, fears and the such. Both of them like the one talking about all the kinds of fears that they had faced during their lives. The song was focused on detailing all the fears that the people of the world had and how it was healthy to have fears, but letting them take control of your life wasn’t a good thing. Personally, Kasu liked the ones dealing with love and how rejection often made people give up. Those songs always made them feel energised and ready to take on the day's challenges.

 

Overall, the two of them loved Lomes songs. Plus they made Kasu feel better about not exactly fitting into the gender binary of male and female, as they had previously stated that they were genderfluid. Rain also liked how they used their clothes to express the feelings of the songs, using pastels for the calm songs and neons for the loud songs as one example.

 

They were just getting started on talking about one of their newer contests, when the first kid came in. Kasu didn't recognise the kid, but Rain did.

 

"Lavender! Come over here, you're the first one out!"

 

Lavender had blonde hair that was tied up in a ponytail and purple, blue eyes that seemed to stare into their soul. Coming over to stand near Rain, she pulled on her hand and whispered in her ear. Kasu didn't feel like eavesdropping but they had a good enough idea of that the kid might be thinking, "Who is this person?"

 

Rain put her hands on Lavender's shoulders and with a smile asked, "Well, why don't you introduce yourself?" She lightly pushed her towards Kasu.

 

Lavender stuck her hand out and bluntly stared at rain. In a monotone voice, she said to Kasu, "My name's Lavender Bruntly. Who are you."

 

Dropping to their knees and startling Lavender, Kasu grinned and shock her hand. "My name's Kasu and I'm here to help you and your class today." Lavender quickly shock back before letting go and stepping backwards, glaring at them. Kasu stood back up and smiled lightly at her.

 

Noticing this, Rain sent a pitying glance at them. "Don't worry, Lavender's not that friendly with strangers, but she's incredibly talkative around her friends." Lavender sat down a few feet away from them and looked behind her at the clock. She shot her hand up and Rain just asked her to say what she wanted to ask.

 

"Miss, it's ten past eleven already. Should I go warn the other kids?" Rain also looked at the clock and looked startled.

 

"I didn't notice that! Thank you Lavender, Yes please do." Lavender quickly shot up and ran towards the changing rooms. Just as she did, a boy came out and the two nearly bumped into each other. Ignoring him, Lavender ran into the girls changing rooms. Kasu recognised the boy as one of the kids that they had helped to teach - Chase with his sandy brown hair and bright brown eyes. Thankfully, it wasn't the kid who had kicked their butt. Then they would’ve been less glad.

 

Chase walked over to the two of them and looked happy to see Kasu. He stuck his hand out to them with a huge grin.

 

"Kasu! I was wondering when we'd see you again."

 

Kasu shock his hand and smiled at him the same. "Exactly what I was thinking. Have you improved?"

 

"I think you'll find that he can!" Rain butted in. "He's been improving a lot - plus he was the kid I told you that managed to beat me last week."

 

Kasu remembered that, Rain had said that she had set up a situation where she went against some of the kids who she wanted to help improve but didn't know where to start. Chase was one of the kids who had managed to win against her. Sure he still had some weaknesses to improve on, but Rain was super proud and wouldn't stop talking about him.

 

"I do remember that Rain - you dropped his name at least twelve times in that conversation."

 

Chase seemed overjoyed at those news and sat down in front of the two of them excitedly. A moment later, Lavender came out of the girls changing rooms followed by two girls. This time Kasu recognised the two of them, Steph with her plaited red hair and Jean with neck length black hair.

 

"Lavender!" Rain, called over, "Did you tell them to hurry up?"

 

She nodded in response and quickly moved behind the other girls. The two of them ran over excitedly, leaving Lavender to run over in order to not be left behind.

 

When the two of them sat down besides Chase, Lavender sat as far away from both Kasu and Chase as she could while still staying close to Steph and Jean. It was like an intricate math puzzle, except this time the puzzle was a little bit more realistic and over convoluted.

 

The class looked a little bit more empty than usual with only four people. Kasu leaned over to Rain and asked her about it. She said, "The rest of the class just takes a lot longer to get changed. Sometimes I wonder why they take so long and tell them that if they don't hurry up I'll pair them up instead of letting them pick."

 

It was more of a mild discomfort to Kasu, but Rain was the master of mild discomforts. Plus, whenever that happened, the rest of the kids also didn't get to pick. This lead to a lot of arguing most of the time with some crying. Most of the kids didn't seem to care about who they were paired up with as they were all good friends. However, there was always at least one kid who complained if they weren't with their close friends.

 

Lavender seemed to be one of those people right off the bat, but they would have to wait and see. The rest of the class, came out within the next 5 minutes. Lavender wasn't the only new one, as they also saw two kids who looked like siblings. They both had the same brown hair and grey, blue eyes. Kasu couldn't tell. The two of them walked together for a while, before the kid with their hair in plaits shoved the other kid away and sat next to Claire, one of the other kids.

 

The other kid looked upset and looked around the classroom before seeing Kasu. The kid smiled and walked up to them and sat in front of them, right next to Chase and his friends. When all the kids had sat down, Rain clapped her hands together. All the kids looked at her expectantly.

 

"Charyeot!" The kids, ten of them in total, clapped their hands together and also yelled. Rain had told them that it meant attention. It was kind of confusing, but Kasu didn't mind. Kasu noticed that the kid with the brown hair in front of them, only clapped their hands together.

 

"Alright is everyone here?" Rain looked over at the class and counted in her head. "We've got nine of you. Where's Aaron?"

 

Kasu hadn't realised the kid had been missing until she had pointed it out. They felt kinda guilty about that, but the kid did often slip into the shadows, kinda like they did. Plus if they remembered right, Aaron had been the kid to kick their butt. One of Chase's friends, Jacob put his hand up. "Aaron's in the hospital."

 

Rain seemed distraught, but continued anyway. "Thank you Jacob. Please remind me to send a card to his family at the end of this session. Now then!" She cleared her throat and turned to them.

 

"My friend Kasu is here today to help us! Some of you might have seen them before and some of you may have not. If that's the case would you kindly introduce yourselves?"

 

The two brown haired kids stood up at the same time. Lavender kept on the floor. The kid with their hair in plaits started to speak first.

 

"My name is Billie Jordan!" They flipped their hair before sitting down and tying their hair up with a hairband on their wrist. The other kid stood up along with the kid sitting near them - Luke. Luke began to speak for them.

 

“Their name is Berry Jordan. Berry can’t speak due to an illness. They say it’s nice to meet you Kasu.”

 

Kasu smiled at that and began to sign back to them while speaking at the same time. They’d tried to learn it a few years back and they had retained a lot of their knowledge. Sure they’d forgotten some of the letters, but the majority of their message hopefully got across in the signs.

 

“Nice to meet you too,  Berry.”

 

They looked up after finishing and could see a smile spreading across Berry’s face.

 

They looked up after finishing and could see a smile spreading across Berry’s face. Berry excitedly signed a message back before sitting down again. They had an enormous smile on their face and looked like one of the most ready to face the next 45 minutes of class. Luke looked at the two of them confused and also sat down.

 

"Thank you!"

 

"Well Kasu I think that's everyone!" Rain carried on. She glanced at Lavender but she quickly shook her head. "Let's get on know!"

 

The rest of the hour was spent watching the kids practise against each other. Rain decided to chose the pairs, resulting in a lot of grumbling. Kasu noticed that when they were allowed to pick, the girls normally went with the girls and the boys normally went with the boys, but Rain made sure to almost always pick girls to go with boys.

 

There was a lot of shouting across the two mats, from both Rain and the children. Rain asked Kasu to make sure the kids were doing alright and to shout the correct commands for the second matt, while she did the first. Kasu wasn't the best at doing the yelling, so the children had to correct them a lot of the time. Eventually, Claire just tapped on their shoulder and whispered that she'd do it when she wasn't fighting. They would've declined, but Claire just took over without them having a say in the matter.

 

Despite that, the fighting didn't take up all of the lesson. Fifteen minutes in, Rain called for a break and all the kids either grabbed water bottles or headed to the water fountain. Kasu spent those five minutes chatting with Chase and the kids to catch up on the time they hadn't been there.

 

After the break, Rain went over some of the phrases after realising that Claire had had to take over for Kasu. It was mostly just recap for the kids and going over some new vocabulary, but she did have a quiz for Kasu. Every time they got something wrong, one of the kids were allowed to have a go.

 

The lesson was over before they knew it. Lavender was one of the first ones to go and get changed when the parents started to walk in. Jean and Steph stayed behind to walk with Billie, while Berry and the rest walked together before splitting.

 

Mrs Bruntly stared at Kasu while her daughter changed. When Lavender came out and they got ready to go, she walked over to them and Rain. They saw Billie, Berry and Chase leave with their parents in the background. Facing Rain, she said, "Miss Elsner who is this?". She pointed to Kasu with the last part.

 

"That's my friend, Kasu. They come to help with the kids sometimes." Rain replied. Mrs Bruntly nodded her head and thanked her before turning to Kasu.

 

"Nice to meet you," she said, holding her hand out. Kasu shook it. They were shaking a lot of hands today. Eventually all the kids and their parents left and they were alone. As soon as Claire's dad shut the door, Rain turned to Kasu.

 

"Hey Kas~" She put her hands behind her back cheekily, "Guess what?"

She smiled at Kasu expectantly, a cheeky grin on her face.

 

"Do you want to tell me something?" They asked. Rain lightly socked them in the arm, one of her hands balled in a fist, with something shiny poking through her fingers.

 

"I wanna show you something, silly! Guess which hand!" Rain did this sort of thing a lot, but it was almost always obvious which hand the item was in. Whenever Kasu guessed wrong, Rain always showed what one it was in.

 

"Both." Folding their hands, they smirked at Rain. She pouted, making Kasu burst out laughing.

 

"You can't guess both!" She also began to laugh before bringing her hands out and opening her fist. Inside were four concert tickets. "I got us both tickets to you know who's concert?"

 

"Wait really?" Then they noticed the extra two. "Are you bringing your parents again?"

 

Rain still lived with her parents most of the time. She had the money for an apartment, but she didn't really want to live in one. One of the reasons that she still lived with her parents was apparently so they weren't lonely. The real reason was that she didn't want them to have to suffer through visits from her cousins, aunts and the such alone. Kasu had seen some of those visits and considered themself lucky to not have Rain's family.

 

What made it better, was that the two of them both liked Lome. Rain had gotten them into it and they liked it - or rather her dad liked it and had pretty much gotten her mom to like it through constant playing of their music. However, that was a double edged sword, as though it meant that they could drag them along to Lome concerts to save money, it meant for the risk of an embarrassing car ride.

 

Of course, Rain didn't really care about them, but Kasu would rather not suffer from hearing stories about their best friend as a child. Especially ones that almost changed how Kasu looked at Rain. Those were the ones that scared Kasu the most. Most of them were harmless though.

 

"Well duh, Kas?! They still need the excitement and what better place to get that then from a Lome concert!" She did have a point. They were only in their fifties which lead to Rain dragging them with her to go to places so they could still live. It was heartwarming and Kasu often liked to go along with them. But at the same time, Kasu would definitely never bring their parents to a lome concert, considering how disturbed they were when they showed them one of the songs. That song was one of the milder ones.

 

"I guess you're right." Rain chuckled.

 

"When aren't I right?"


	3. All In This Together

Two days later, Kasu had woken up much later than they expected. The concert started at 9 and since the place was fifteen minutes away, they had to drive for at least 20 minutes. Kasu had woken up at the glorious time of 8:30. This sent them into a panic for the first five minutes before they threw on the first clothes they could find that seemed suitable. Normally, they threw on clothes at random before events, but normally that was with more time and less panic- decidedly not the other way around.

 

When Rain knocked on the door, Kasu looked quickly in the nearest mirror. Their strawberry red hair stuck up in spikes- the kind you only get in anime, with their blue eyes covered by their hair. This made them take out their utterly useless  hairband and adjust it. Then they quickly scanned their outfit, beige sweater, scarlet pleated skirt and black leggings with silver, sparkly trainers. Pulling down their sweater, they rushed to the door and opened it.

 

"Hey Kassy!" Rain was standing there with a grin plastered on her face like usual. She had on her space t-shirt with navy leggings with the same colour trainers. Her parent's car was in the driveway behind her. Her dad waved at them from the front seat and they waved back.

 

"Hey Rain. Ready to go?" Rain's response was an obviously before she started to walk out to the car. Looking behind her, she made the hand signal for hurry up and Kasu hurriedly ran after her. After Rain opened the door for them, the two piled into the backseat.

 

Rain's mother turned back in her seat as the car started and started up the conversation. "Casper! Lovely to see you again darling."

 

"Nice to see you too, Mrs Elsner." They replied. She had a tendency to call them Casper, it was mostly just a slip up. Kasu was just a nickname. Rain didn't correct them most of the time, because they had told her not to. In all honesty, it was just a mild discomfort. 

 

"I'd ask you how school was, but you've not been in it for a while have you?" Both Mr and Mrs Elsner began to laugh while Rain and Kasu exchanged dirty looks. Rain had stayed along for the ride of University and graduated, in the end. However, nobody aside from Rain knew that Kasu wasn’t there to join her. 

 

"Time passes by really quickly, mom." Rain replied, twirling her hair around her fingers, "You looking forward to the concert?"

 

Mr Elsner chimed in from behind the wheel with, "I'm sure your mother isn't that excited. After all,  didn't you and I have to drag her in with us?" 

 

Mrs Elsner glared at him as he carried on driving. "Nonsense, darling. What’s-their-name has excellent music. We all enjoy it in this car, don't we?"

 

That was met with multiple cheers.  The rest of the trip there was met with jamming to all kinds of music (Rain’s dad was surprisingly good with girly pop songs) and very awkward silences. At one point, they started talking about Rain’s little school. Which in turn, set off her parents- test scores, after school clubs, University and friends, they talked about it all. 

 

"That reminds me, how did you two meet? You barely seem to talk about it and I don't really have a clue." Her mother brought the topic up and her father agreed. Rain started to talk about it to the two of them. Basically, the two of them had met in real life one day on the playground. The exact circumstances, neither friend remembered, but they had stayed friends ever since. Then they had managed to find the other on a roleplaying forum by complete accident and that had sparked their friendship even further.

 

“So me and Kasu have just stayed together through our stupid interests! The end!” Rain summarised, bowing as much as she could while in her seat belt. Mrs Elsner and Kasu also began to clap rather awkwardly.

 

Mr Elsner commented on the fact that he would’ve clapped if he could, but he had to have two hands on the wheel. Rain said that it was fine, already basking in the small victory of having two people clapping for her. She always liked to celebrate even the smallest victories as she felt that they wouldn’t want to be left behind.

A short time later, they reached the concert place. Kasu leaned forward in their car seat and asked Rain’s parents for the time. It was 8:53, leaving them seven minutes before the concert began. They wasted five of those precious minutes waiting in line before finally getting through to the front to hand their tickets in. Then the four of them made their way in. Kasu separated from Rain and her parents while they waiting in another line to get glow sticks. 

Before splitting up, they all agreed to meet up at the bathrooms at the halfway point of the show. At this Rain smiled at Kasu and said that then they would have all the time they needed to refill on their social juices. They simply glared at Rain while she stared back. The two of them broke out in laughter a few seconds after. Neither could stay mad at the other for long.

Kasu walked around the concert area before settling down in one of the more quieter areas. You couldn’t see the stage as much as you could from further up, but there was less chance of being trampled by rampaging fans (They liked having all their limbs thank you very much). All around them were total strangers, but they could see small bits and pieces standing out from the crowd that they recognised. A teens bubblegum hair. Someone's gothic lolita dress, another's crimson bowtie and many other things that they’d seen before but displayed with new personalities.

Mr Elsner commented on the fact that he would’ve clapped if he could, but he had to have two hands on the wheel. Rain said that it was fine, already basking in the small victory of having two people clapping for her. She always liked to celebrate even the smallest victories as she felt that they wouldn’t want to be left behind.

A short time later, they reached the concert place. Kasu leant forward in their car seat and asked Rain’s parents for the time. It was 8:53, leaving them seven minutes before the concert began. They wasted five of those precious minutes waiting in line before finally getting through to the front to hand their tickets in. Then the four of them made their way in. Kasu separated from Rain and her parents while they waiting in another line to get glow sticks. 

Before splitting up, they all agreed to meet up at the bathrooms at the halfway point of the show. At this Rain smiled at Kasu and said that then they would have all the time they needed to refill on their social juices. They simply glared at Rain while she stared back. The two of them broke out in laughter a few seconds after. Neither could stay mad at the other for long.

Kasu walked around the concert area before settling down in one of the more quieter areas. You couldn’t see the stage as much as you could from further up, but there was less chance of being trampled by rampaging fans (They liked having all their limbs thank you very much). All around them were total strangers, but they could see small bits and pieces standing out from the crowd that they recognised. A teens bubblegum hair. Someone's gothic lolita dress, another's crimson bowtie and many other things that they’d seen before but displayed with new personalities. 

The concert had started, so they looked towards the stage. Lome was standing on it talking to the crowd. They were too far away to hear what they were saying, but they were definitely saying something. It went on for at least a few minutes, so long that Kasu started to get bored. They ran their fingers through their hair and twirled it. It wasn't curly and never really was. Most of the time it stuck up in spikes around their head or was tied up in a ponytail. Finally the first song began just before Kasu considered taking their hairband out and messing around with it. 

Kasu watched as Lome grabbed a microphone and the song began to play. It was one of the ones that Kasu didn't know to well but still enjoyed. They bobbed their head along to the music and tried to listen to the lyrics. Eventually all the words blurred together and sounded like complete and utter gibberish to them. Nevertheless they liked it. It was good gibberish. As the song went on, more people piled into the area Kasu was in. They spotted more things out from the crowd, a blue ribbon, black pony tails, a large green and blue jumper. They didn't mind. 

When the next song started, they were beginning to get nervous. More and more people were piling into the area, making it seem crowded. A girl with glasses and pink hair sat next to Kasu, playing a game on her phone. They moved to the opposite side of the bench and tried to focus on the lyrics. It was one of their favourites, one that talked about the thought of drowning and how that could be presented metaphorically and physically. Kasu personally liked when it talked about the metaphorical types and how certain things could bring you down and make you 'drown'. Those things were just simply interesting to think about.

Even as more people came into the area, they tried to block it out by focusing on the lyrics. Focusing on lome. Focusing on anything but the people in the room. At one point they resorted to mouthing the lyrics as they went along. Sometimes they messed up, thinking one verse was another, but they didn't have any of the songs lyrics down perfectly. Except for the song with phobias, they had mastered that one.

As the second song came to an end, it forced Kasu to become more aware of their surroundings. A couple was sitting in between them and the girl, holding hands and staring lovingly into the others eyes. While the thought of couples didn't distress them, the thought of being cramped made them get up. That made it even worse. People crowded around the other benches, waving glowsticks and yelling. A couple of kids were smoking in one of the corners. They tried to focus on anything but what surrounded them by looking at the stage. Unfortunately, there was a technical problem that prevented the distraction for them through the songs. 

With one last look around them, they broke out into a full panic. Their hands got sweaty and their breathing speed up. They tried to lean against a wall, but they couldn't, making them hyperventilate more. Most of the times when they had panic attacks, they were able to calm down by drawing or doodling. However, they hadn't brought any pens and with a quick check in their sweater pocket, they didn't have any on them either. 

Finally, they broke out into a run and burst for the bathrooms. The girl with the pink hair shot them a glance as they ran, bumping into some people and mouthing quick apologies. One of the boys that they bumped into had yelled some obscene things that made them turn backwards and sign them something you would have to be blind to not recognise. He might've done something about it, but they were long gone before they found out the results. They didn't want to stick around anyway. Tears were falling down their cheeks and the feeling of vomit had surfaced in their mouth. They had reached the bathrooms and burst in through the door. It was thankfully a gender neutral bathroom, saving them from the dilemma of having to chose between male or female. Or just not going at all, but sometimes that wasn't an option.

The bathroom was mostly empty except for a woman and her child. The woman was fixing her makeup while the child was tugging on her leggings. He looked bored and looked ready to cry, while his mother spent her precious time on making sure her lipstick was 100% perfect. When she saw Kasu and she packed up her makeup and began to leave, pulling her child along with her. Kasu wasted no time in running to one of the open stalls, slamming the door, locking said door and sitting down on the toilet seat. They brought their knees up to their chest and let the tears pour out of their eyes. 

They sat there crying for about five minutes before climbing down and opening the toilet seat. The feeling of vomit had come back so they tried to empty it out into the toilet bin. All that came out was a small amount of collected up mucus that was spitted into the toilet bowl. Wiping their mouth, they closed the toilet seat and sat on it again. Putting a hand on their chest, they leaned as far back as they could comfortably. Silently, they sat there listening to their heartbeat slowly slow down before getting back to normal. At this point they were incredibly thirsty and didn't have any water on them. They would drink from the taps, but they knew that would make them thirstier. Besides, they didn't feel that desperate. Plus, Rain had their water bottle and it should be nearing half time meaning that she'd be outside.

Calming their nerves, they unlocked the stall door and stepped outside. No one was at the sinks and all the stall doors were open. No one was inside any of them as far as they could see. It creeped them out a bit, but they went up to wash their hands nevertheless. The soup dispensers were out so they just cleaned their hands. After patting their hands dry on their skirt, they went up to the door and opened it. Their mouth fell open with shock before they covered it with their hands and closed it. Absolutely no one was outside, anywhere. Looking left and right, they couldn't see anyone. The whole stage area was abandoned and everyone was gone.

They made their way over to the area where they last were and looked for someone, anyone. No one came out. The girl with the pink hair's phone was laying on the floor. It had a really cute pastel goth case, but the screen was shattered. What a shame. Turning it over in their hands, they kneeled down on the floor for maybe five seconds. Then they heard footsteps. How many pairs there were, they couldn't be sure off. Slowly they began to get up and turn around. Before they could, someone put their hands on their head and steered them back the way they came. Those hands were cold, but felt gloved. How could Kasu tell? They were guessing to be completely honest. Either way, they were stopping them from moving anywhere.

Another pair of footsteps approached and stopped a few meters away from them. The hands were still tightly gripped around their head. It was starting to hurt. Then they were suddenly dropped on to the floor. Kasu stumbled onto the floor, but quickly got up and started to turn around. Behind them were two people, one looked like a teen and the other like an adult. The teen was the one who had been holding their head and looked shocked to see them. On the other hand, the adult snarled and lifted up something in their hands. It was a baseball bat. 

Both Kasu and the teen looked shocked, but the adult swung with no mercy. Kasu crashed to the floor and unwillingly welcomed the darkness.


	4. Hurricane

Charlie Wave was reconsidering her lifechoices. It wasn't something she did every day, but it happened often enough for it to become part of her routine. Currently, the issue was the dilemma of whether or not it was a good idea to kidnap someone. She still wasn't exactly certain on whether or not it could be classified as kidnapping, but it still seemed pretty likely for a contender. Hopefully they didn’t see it as such, that had complications that she was in no mood to deal with.

 

Plus, she had kinda hit them on the head with a baseball bat. That probably hadn't given her any brownie points. Probably since that could’ve killed them or given them brain damage - Selene would tear her to pieces if she had killed someone again, though.

 

It wasn’t for no reason. That concert was another brainwashing victim. While they weren't able to stop the attack from happening, no one from the dan had been brainwashed. One of them did get close, but Felix was able to save Alex. Charlie was thankful, she didn't know what she would've done if they had lost Alex. Maybe throw a party.

 

Nearly everyone at the concert had been brainwashed. Where exactly it came from was a mystery, but it seemed that everyone was attracted to the stage all of a sudden, like magnets.

What happened next was a mystery, since a bright magnesium light shone, forcing everyone to look away. In the end, nobody who was on the stage remained to tell the tale.

 

It was the first time the dan had seen a brainwashing in action and none the less one where everyone went missing - nearly everyone. By some lucky chance, a few minutes after it was over someone walked out of the bathrooms and headed for an area. Said area had a few benches and had lots of open space. No one would even notice them in such a quiet area.

 

Charlie and Selene teamed up to go after them, Charlie bringing along a baseball bat. Selene tried to get the bat off her, but gave up and let her have it. The two of them sneaked up behind them. The person heard them and tried to turn around, but not before Selene put zir hands on their head and kept them facing forward. Hier kept it like that until Charlie whispered to zir to drop them. As the person turned around, she had the spur of the moment thought to hit them in the head. They collapsed easily.

 

"What was that for?" Selene turned towards her and asked. Zir put zir hands on zir waist and stared at her.

 

"Honestly? I have no idea." With a sigh, Selene turned to the unconscious person and began to lift up their arms.

 

"Well then, help me bring them back to the base. You can apologise when they wake up and we'll handle it from there."

 

That brought them to the present day. The person still hadn't woken up and Charlie was beginning to fear that she had put them into a coma. Shit. Hoping that wasn't the case, she went to go and find Selene. Selene Jordan was the co founder of the H4K1 Dan and was only a year younger than Charlie. Selene used zie/hir/hirs pronouns which was a little tricky to explain to newer members. Thankfully, a lot of them were really considerate and used the correct ones. That made Charlie happy as well as Selene. 

 

Unfortunately, there always was someone who didn't respect zir pronouns and that was something that no one wanted to deal with. They got a warning and if they didn't fix it, they were thrown out of the dan. And the rest, no one wants to know or find out. 

 

The H4K1 Dan was created after multiple people had had enough of all the occurrences of brainwashing. Coming together, they formed the H4K1 Dan to try and find out the reason behind why the brain washings happened and how to stop them. As of lately, they had only managed to pinpoint a suspect. They had multiple reasons to believe it was them - the only thing stopping them from solving the entire case was the lack of evidence against them.

 

No-one knew their real name, not even their biggest fans. They were known for wearing multiple outfits, wigs and moving around a lot, making it damn near impossible to pin them down for longer than a week. This was a real issue for the members of the H4K1 Dan and the lack of members was distressing as well.

 

When the group had began, they had the grand total of five members - the original leaders. Eventually more people joined to make that number a whooping thirty. However, it didn't stay like that for long as in the present day they had just over ten members. What had happened to those twenty or so members? They had left, gotten bored or had been kicked out. Members didn't grow on trees either and since none of them were Sherlock Holmes, the process had been slow. If Charlie was honest, even finding a single suspect had been a long and tiring road.

 

Most of the dan members were in their mid to late twenties, but Charlie didn't really care too much about everyone's ages or anything. If anyone had a birthday and didn't bother to tell anyone, the only person who would care would probably be Selene. Zir would know. Selene always knew.

 

It was kinda creepy, but heartwarming. Last week had been Ollie's birthday and they had celebrated with cupcakes. They were delicious. Felix also managed to get the piano working and played a song. While no one really recognised the name or tune, it was incredible - especially considering it was being played by a blind pianist.

 

Charlie stopped pacing around the room and sat down on one of the chairs scattered around the room. With a sigh, she looked at the clock. It was half past noon and if the kid didn't wake up soon it was likely they were in a coma. They didn't need another incident especially considering that the last time it happens, the hospital set on fire. (Thankfully it didn't spread far. But still.)

 

Then Alex wandered into the room. Alex Field was one of those kids who could probably be described using three words - sarcastic dorky memester - but was mostly just a pain. In the butt. If they bothered to take a survey on how many people liked the kid, really only Felix and Selene would vote that he was alright.

 

"Selene says the kid woke up." He informed. She stood up and went over to thank him.

  
"Alrighty. Thanks!" 


	5. Candy Store

Alex avoided her hand like it had the plague before breaking into a sprint into the piano room. Alex liked to watch Felix play and on the occasion play it himself. He was actually pretty okay, with a little more practise and effort, he could probably be able to play alongside them. Thank god Felix could deal with him, no one really liked Alex honestly. “What’s his deal,” she muttered under her breath before heading to what most of the members called the bedroom.

 

Why did they call it that? It had the majority of the beds in the dan, with two single beds and four bunkbeds. Just enough for everyone to fit in one bed, no sharing necessary. About two months ago, they had a lot less and there was a lot of sharing necessary. Even then, people had to sleep on the floor and the floor wasn’t exactly the best place to sleep peacefully. Especially when you had to sleep next to your enemy. That was the worst and Charlie did get tempted to try something while her enemies slept. She didn’t get a chance to unfortunately.

 

Sticking her head inside the bedroom, she saw Selene sitting on one of the lower bunks next to one of the single beds. Zie's short brown hair hung loose by zie shoulders, near the pastel pink shirt and yellow skirt zie had on. Zie's blue eyes were closed, but startled awake when Charlie entered the room. 

 

"Charlie!" Zie smiled and embraced her tightly. "The kids awake. But it's not pretty."

Turning her eyes to the person in the bed, she quickly looked over them. They were sat up and stared blankly at Charlie with unblinking green eyes. It was creepy. They sat there unmoving and Charlie felt the urge to push them over. 

 

So she did it and the kid stuck their hands out to catch themself before they could hit the duvet with their face. When they caught themself, they pulled themself up and glared at Charlie. Selene also glared at Charlie before slapping her.

 

“Ow! What was that for?” She complained. Selene raised hir hand once more before lowering it and sitting down, with a sigh.

 

“Don’t push people Charlie. Remember what happened last time?” Zie crossed hir arms and closed hir eyes.

 

“Are you kidding me that was one of the milder times.” The time in question had been when she had pushed over a middle aged man who had turned out to be a terrorist. He actually wasn’t a terrorist, but Charlie had started to go slightly crazy with insults, even beginning to try and throw things to a point where the police had to get involved. Selene had to drag her away, apologising profusely. 

 

The person on the bed’s face had turned stark white and pale. Selene took a deep breath in before turning to them and holding hir hand out.

 

“I’m sorry about her. My name’s Selene and she’s Charlie.” They shock zir hand, muttering under their breath about stereotypes. 

 

“My name’s Casper, but most people call me Kasu.” So their name was Kasu. Sounded Japanese. Charlie decided to also whisper under their breath about stereotypes and how much they looked like an anime character. Spiky hair reminiscent of anime, a japanese sounding nickname, definitely like an original character for a popular anime. “My friend Rain often says I look like an anime character actually, Charlie.” Well shit. They heard.

 

“Eavesdropping much?” She commented. They scoffed in reply. Then they stopped and looked around.

 

“Hold on. Where am I? What happened?” In response to their question, Selene gave the worst summary of the events of yesterday in about a sentence. 

 

“It’s too complicated. Mind coming with us to the break room?”

 

Kasu nodded and made their way out of the bed. They asked where their shoes were and she said that they didn’t need them as they weren’t going outside. With a glare from Kasu aimed at Charlie, the three of them made their way to the break room.

 

The break room was sort of like a meeting room, but they normally just played board games with the occasional team strategy and planning session.(Charlie was the boss at monopoly. Felix was the worst but when they teamed up with Alex, everyone got destroyed.) Charlie and Selene, being the leader and co-leader in that order, were the ones who used the room to make strategies. Sometimes they also used it for compiling research when they were able to get into libraries and use their computers.

 

Inside the break room, there was a massive table, with room for ten chairs at the both long sides and two chairs at both short sides, leaving room for twenty four people to sit down. There was also three smaller tables for two people and a massive cupboard, half stocked with board games and half stocked with paperwork.

 

Sitting down at one of the small tables were Penny and Simon Holt. They were twins and probably the most unrecognisable twins ever - or at least as much as Charlie knew of. Penny had natural red hair, but dyed it neon green most of the time and kept it in pigtails, while Simon kept his red hair. Simon had blue eyes, while Penny had put in pink coloured contacts. However, they both wore pretty similar outfits - pale yellow shirt with a blue middle. Of course, Penny wore a pastel pink skirt with dungarees while Simon wore pastel green trousers and dungarees, but she had a point. 

 

The two of them were playing a board game and judging by the silence, Penny was winning or they were drawing. Whenever Penny started to lose, their was screaming, middle fingers and board flipping. Usually not all three at once, but she did manage to flip the board with middle fingers once. That was impressive, but she was getting off track.

 

Kasu looked surprised at probably everything in the room. Charlie wouldn’t blame them to be honest, if she had no idea what everyone and everything was, she’d be a little nervous. Probably scared to (She was glad Kasu wasn’t screaming. That would set Penny off. And no one wanted to set Penny off. )

 

Selene ran over to Penny and Simon and flipped the board over. It fell onto the floor and the two of them glared at hir. They were pretty terrifying and if satan had a clone, teamed up with said clone, they’d both fear Penny and Simon. Even Charlie was a little terrified of them and that's saying a lot.

 

“Would you two mind getting everyone else? We need to talk.” Zie said. The two of them proceeded to point at the other, before getting up and doing it together. Whenever possible, Penny tried to make Simon do the things that she didn’t want to do while Simon did the same thing. Most of the time it didn’t work, unless they started pushing and shoving. Then things get nasty quickly. It was like a mini world war, except all in one area and without all the death, heartbreak and PTSD.

 

As they left, Selene sat down at one of the two chairs at the head of the large table and Charlie sat next to hir. Kasu sat down on one of the long side chairs near Selene. They waited there for about five minutes in complete silence. Charlie spent that time daydreaming, dozing off and staring/glaring at Kasu. They were strange and she didn’t know whether she liked that or not. Probably not, honestly. Messing around with a hairband, she resisted the urge to reach across the table and snatch it of them. 

 

Thankfully, Penny and Simon returned before that happened. Along with them were Felix, Alex, and everyone else. Ollie Cleaver, a shy blonde with a tendency to make stupid puns, Holly Swan, one of the more sane people in the dan, Matthew Juan-Dio, who shouldn’t be trusted with pencils and birds and Ann Field, who Charlie hated for almost no reason. The reason behind it was stupid, she’d tripped up and spilled something over her clothes and she had hated her ever since. She was convinced Ann had done it on purpose, somehow.

 

Alex guided Felix to their chair before sitting down, Ann sat next to the two of them, Penny and Simon sat directly opposite each other, Matthew sat next to Kasu and held his hand out to them which they shock and Ollie and Holly sat down on the other end of the table. Selene banged hir hands on the table, startling pretty much everyone. Felix’s hat almost fell of their head, which made Charlie snort.

 

“Okay is everyone here?” Zie asked. 

 

“Not emotionally but I’m here physically.” Alex chimed in. Charlie commented on how pretty much everyone felt the same way and a lot of people nodded their heads. Selene looked mortified.

 

“Alex no. Anyway, I’ve brought you all here because we need to explain what happened yesterday to Kasu here.” Selene carried on, shooting what could have been the start of a glare towards Alex, who put a hand on his chest and fake gasped.

 

“Question - what the hell happened yesterday again?” Holly put her hand up and asked. Ollie whispered in her ear and she let out an oh. “Nevermind.”

 

“Does anyone want to volunteer?” No one put their hand up, meaning that Selene had to pick on someone. “Matthew and Penny would you like to explain?”

 

The two of them got up. Matthew began to speak before Penny walked over and pushed him over. As he thrived in pain, she explained it a little bit better than Selene’s.

 

“We were investigating the brainwashing and Charlie bonked you on the head after you managed to escape the, “ She put up finger quotations, “magnesium light. I’m still 90% sure that doesn’t even make sense, scientifically.”

 

“Ow, Penny! Why’d you do that!” Matthew complained on the floor, before Penny kicked him in the face with her trainer. 

 

“Because I don’t like you. Is that all, Selene? Or can we go?” She snarled after sitting down.

 

“Nope! I’d like to propose something to Kasu over here.” Zie turned around in hir chair and faced them, holding hir hand out. “Since we’re running a little short of members, would you like to join the H4K1 Dan, Kasu?”


	6. Chapter 6

 

Lome smiled in their mirror and sighed in relief. Their day was going absolutely great! They’d managed to finish a series of five songs that they'd been holding back forever on finishing. It actually sounded super duper good as well - according to the online survey and from the many people that they had asked - which was a huge relief. Personally they liked weaving the backstories behind all the songs together and summing it all up with the last one. That was their favourite part of writing songs, just ahead of actually singing them. They could put all the emotions that they intended in the lyrics while they sung, something that could only really happen when people both wrote and sung the song.

 

They leaned back in their chair and spun around, laughing. Spiral chairs were great for that reason. As they spun to a stop, they let out yet another sigh and fluffed their hair. It was super curly and a bright red colour. This made it kind of hard for wigs, but hairbands were a saviour. Hairbands allowed them to put their hair up, allowing them to slip into wigs much more easily. Such a blessing.

 

Currently, they didn't need to wear a wig for the song they were singing. Their red hair fit in perfectly with the theme of the song - insanity and craziness. (And hell, but that was only referenced. They feared the angry suburban moms - last time they were  _ this _ close to burning down a hospital but some crazy people beat them to it.) They only needed an outfit suitable for the song now. That part was the funnest.

 

Every single one of their songs had an outfit specialised for it. Nothing was ever worn twice- wasteful, sure, boring, hell no. And Lome was all about having as much fun as humanly possible, having a good time singing, writing and meeting up with fans. Not like they had many fans nowadays. 

 

They got up off the chair, walked over to the closet and proceeded to throw it open, making the sides hit the walls with a loud bang. Probably broke ‘em. At that they smirked. Inside were a bunch of different outfits, each one having at least one double, so that they could organise them by songs. To the left were the outfits already associated with a song and to the right was all the rest of the clothing. Reaching for the top shelf, they pulled out their signature orange bow and attached it to the top of their head. Whenever possible, every single song's outfit had the bow. Sometimes it was a different colour and sometimes it just wasn't there at all for some reason. There was another accessory (In one song they wore both a little hat and the bow in red. It was amazing), they weren't allowed to wear it or it just didn't fit in. 

 

Reaching for the right, they pulled out two shirts and scanned them both before flinging one of them back in the closet. The one still in their hands was a dark red shirt with a pastel yellow middle, with short sleeves with a yellow band. Resting it over their arm like a hanger, they reached inside again. They pulled out a skirt with the same colour scheme as the shirt and flung it back inside to find the longer version - the original one looked a lot like a mini skirt and they didn't want everyone to see their underpants, thank you very much. When they found said longer version, they flung it over on top of the shirt.

 

Slamming shut the closet door, they opened the shorter cabinet next to it and flung it open. Inside were their socks and they pulled out a light pink one and a white one, before flinging them on the pile. Then they grabbed their favourite red sneakers from a line beside it, before running into the bathroom and flinging the clothes on. Time was running out. 

 

After they finished, they looked in the mirror and smiled crazily. Fluffing their hair, they did a majestic hair flip before strutting out of the bathroom. They liked to change in bathrooms. Changing rooms just made them feel weird, and bathrooms also allowed them to mess around with makeup and potentially ruin their face. Yay!

 

Walking out towards the stage, they lifted the curtains and walked out into the middle of the stage. The sky was a navy blue and the full moon was up high and bright. Tiny music became booming and the audience started to cheer. 

 

They stood up in front of the audience, with their smile being their signature crazy grin. Their cheeks hurt dammit. Their hair was wild. And the music was loud and pumping. Everyone's eyes were on them. They would've begun to sing, but before doing that they decided to yell one small phrase to make sure it worked.

 

"Turn the volume up now, folks! Listen to the words I say now!"

 

Everyone seemed to scream the lyrics back to them even louder. Multicoloured glow sticks waved throughout the air, with some people throwing theirs at other people, only to pick them up again. 

They felt one of them slam against their forehead, but the pain was small and worthless. They needed to carry on. 

 

The crowd didn't seem to notice, throwing more glow sticks before becoming a war. A bright, flashing, colourful war.  This was wrong, this shouldn’t be happening. At one point, they saw that some people began to try and throw each other!  They knew that they had to start singing  _ soon _ ,  otherwise someone would be injured. That wasn't what they wanted for them. They wanted something else. 

 

But they had had enough. 

 

Slamming their trainer against the stage, they let loose a guttural scream. Their throat would pay for that. Luckily, they have strong vocal chords. Everyone and everything seemed to screech to a halt. They stood there in silence as a girl got a boot to the head, and the crazy smile grew wider and wider. God, their cheeks were on fire. But it was worth it. 

  
"Let's have some fun tonight!"


	7. Chapter 7

Kasu was not having a good day, so far at least. After waking up to find themself in a new place, with two complete strangers looking over them. The first one was actually a lot nicer, in their opinion, and had super curly black hair. They actually had to hold themself back from fluffing it otherwise the other one would probably kill them. She looked super cute, but she was actually more shedemon than moe anime girl. To be honest, she reminded them of Rain, they had the same brown hair at about the same length. But that brought up bad memories, especially considering that now they had no idea where Rain was. 

 

Selene (The fluffy black haired one) had brought them to a meeting room along with the other one, Charlie. There was two people who reminded them of Lavender, except they were more of the spawn of hell than just a small child with a mild distaste for them. Like Lucifer One and Lucifer Two, except their names were actually Penny and Simon.

 

There was a lot of other people there too, a blind pianist called Felix, a relatable depressed person called Alex, an oblivious but normal girl called Holly, her friend called Oliver, a silent girl with a devilish glare called Ann and a guy that reminded them of Chase called Matthew. So a lot of new people and potential new friends right? That was if they joined the H4K1 Dan - or whatever it was called. But what would happen if they didn't? They needed to know.

 

They put their hand on hir hand and pushed it down. "Selene, I'd be happy to accept your offer," Selene looked happy, but worried, "but what would happen if I said no?"

 

Hir face turned pale and zie turned to Charlie quickly, locking eyes for a millisecond, before beginning to speak. "Well, we'd return you back home of course. If you don't want to get caught up in this whole mess then you don't have to." At that moment Charlie put her hands on the table and faced Kasu.

 

"But we really really need some more help! Kasu listen to me." She pushed her chair back and walked over to them and crouched down on the floor, putting her hands on their face. "These idiots aren't getting us anywhere and it’s a miracle we managed to pinpoint Lome as a suspect. Now I have a question for you. Do you like lome's music?"

 

They nodded and Charlie stood up and held her hand out. "We'll need your help then Kasu. None of us knew Lome's music that well before this whole incident and a fresh pair of eyes will make things easier. So will you help us?"

 

"Am I allowed to say no or will you rip my eyes out?" Selene looked at the two of them mortified and Oliver covered Holly's eyes and Simon reached over to cover her ears. Charlie laughed and shock her head. "In that case, yeah." 

 

"Victory dance!" Ann suddenly yelled, throwing her hands up in the air. Everyone turned their heads to look at her and she snapped at them back with a, "What are you looking at?"

 

Selene dragged Charlie back to her chair and looked pitifully at Kasu. "While Ann is sort of right, there is no time to waste. If you really do know Lome's music, then that means that we can find some evidence on them."

 

Felix raised their hand before Alex pushed it back down and shouted, "What evidence do you want to find? Don't we need to just go up to the police and shove your reasoning and math skills in their faces?" Felix turned to Alex and shock their head. 

 

"That's not what happens, as far as I know. We need something more conclusive and more definitively pointing to Lome than a few math equations and jumping to conclusions." Alex muttered the same things under his breath in a mocking tone before turning to Selene and Charlie. 

 

"Well?" Alex said. 

 

"Felix is right. We, unfortunately, can't throw math equations at the police to get them to do the right thing. Besides, we should try to avoid the police for a while, they probably don't want to see the lady who almost got arrested. They thought you were crazy, Charlie." Selene carried on, shooting a knowing look at Charlie, who scowled and muttered something obscene under her breath. Selene was probably right, Kasu thought, Charlie looks pretty damn mental. 

 

"So what should we focus on going through first? Their songs, music or lyrics or outfits or this or that or...?" Kasu had stopped listening after that point. 

 

“Shut up, Simon. No one cares.” Charlie was getting pissy. 

 

In theory, it was a good idea to just dive in, looking for evidence against Lome. However, there was so much to work from, that it was just way too easy to jump easily to conclusions. That  rickety bridge the H4K1 Dan were crossing was unstable and falling apart.

 

From a basic viewing, nothing connected at all. In order to find even one stable link between… well, anything, there was a lot of re-watching music videos, comment reading, wiki reading, more re-watching and even some confirmation from Lome themselves. However, anything there was quickly disregarded, no one trusted Lome as far as they could throw ‘em- granted, Charlie could probably throw them to the moon. Overall, it was hard work and the H4K1 Dan couldn’t take it all at once. 

 

"I think we should focus on finding the lyrics and seeing the links between them." They stated. Everyone turned to face them.

 

"What'd ya mean?" Matthew asked. 

 

"Well, there's a backstory behind every single song. The characters in every song all have a name and past, fleshed out history, grandparents and unique personalities. This means that they all link to each other and all the songs focus on the characters and give the section of their story a moment in the spotlight. You can find the links mostly in the lyrics behind the songs, but sometimes the information needed is in the video or on the wiki..." Kasu proceeded to talk for the longest they ever had. Probably. 

 

They loved to talk about Lome though! They loved the theories and headcanons behind all the songs and Rain was always happy to bounce ideas back and forth. The last thing they had discussed was whether or not the main character from From The Dreams, Lucette Koharu Osanne should trust Sophie Millicent Avadonia. Sophie was a new character and looked nice enough, but from the undertones in the song that could be debated. Kasu was certain that Sophie was a mole and was working for the evil organisation - FROG. (For Reaching Our Goals). The wiki even said so! She wasn't to be trusted.

 

How that information would help them bring down Lome, Kasu had absolutely no idea. Despite this, Charlie began to get out of her chair. She walked over to a cupboard and reached to grab a wad of paper. Then she walked back over and slammed it on the table, making everyone jump yet again.

 

"So we basically have to analyse all the lyrics, right?" She said, putting emphasis on the last word.

 

"Charlie… what are you doing?" Selene asked, crossing hir arms. Selene looked 110% done with this right now, and frankly, Kasu couldn’t blame hir. Being the only sane person in this freakshow must be a tough job. 

 

"Isn't it obvious! We have all this paper that we aren't using - well Oli’s using it for drawing.!" Holly proceeded to yell as well. Then she also lowered her voice to say, "Your drawings are very cute Oliver!" Pretty much everyone else nodded, making Oliver's face turn bright pink and stutter out a thank you.

 

"As  _ I _ was saying, we aren't really using this paper. So we can use it to write down everything in the songs! There should be something, someone who we can link the characters, lyrics or general message to!"

 

There was a mutual agreement in the room. Charlie began to hand out the pieces of paper to everyone, making sure that everyone had at least one. She tried to give Felix and Alex one each, but Alex stole one from her pile for Felix. He stuck his tongue out at her when she protested, but she gave up. Just because they were blind didn't mean that they weren't as good as the rest of them.

 

When she had handed out all the papers, she turned to Kasu. "Alright Kasu. I think we should split this up between everyone. I would do it, but since I don’t feel like it I'll hand the job over to you." Then she whispered under her breath that they should do it quickly before she did it herself. Rude, but with a point.

 

They made a mental list of the things they could look over. There were three categories for the songs that Lome made. There were the two series they had made - From the Dreams and The Liar of Lies - and general songs  such as the song about handling phobias that they and Rain liked. For the series, there were three things to tackle, characters, lyrics and the general message behind the song. For the general songs there were only the lyrics and the message. Kasu also thought about adding a general analysis of the description and the people behind the songs, but that could be an overall job for everyone.

 

“Okay then. There’s two series and a general set of songs not connected at all, so I’ll split you up into three groups. The first series, From the Dreams, is based on a party of people working on a quest to overthrow an evil government. I’ll cover the characters, Matthew can cover the lyrics and Ann will cover the messages.”

 

“I have to work with her?” Matthew grumbled. “She’s boring!” 

 

“You’re boring!” She retorted, sticking her tongue out. Charlie yelled at the two of them to shut their traps, before asking Kasu to continue.

 

“The second series, The Liar of Lies, is a series of songs focusing on characters who tell lies and how that affects them. For the characters I’ll be teaming up Charlie and Selene as there’s a lot, Holly will be on the lyrics and Oliver can do the message.” 

 

Holly and Oliver turned to each over and high fived. Selene and Charlie looked monotone, probably used to it due to being leaders.

 

“As for the general songs, we don’t need to cover the characters. I’ll be teaming up Penny and Simon for the lyrics and -”

 

“Wait what? I have to work with my stupid twin brother!” Penny yelled. “That’s no fair!”

 

“Suck it up watermelon! I don’t want to work with you either!” Simon yelled back. Penny flipped the bird at him and Simon did the same.

 

“As I was saying, I’ll be teaming up Felix and Alex for the messages.” Alex whooped and Felix smiled. "So that's everyone right?" Everyone nodded, some more hesitant than others. 

 

"Well let's get to it then! Everyone go and sit next to the people you're working with." Selene putted in, dragging Charlie with hir to sit next to Holly and Oliver on the other side of the table, the two of them sitting opposite each other. Ann got out of her chair and walked around to sit where Selene was sitting. She smiled at Kasu. Simon shuffled next to Alex and Felix, while Penny tried to move along in her chair, but she eventually just walked around the edge to sit next to Simon. The look on her face was of pure anger and Kasu was thankful they weren't sitting next to her - she might rip them apart and the look in her eyes was pure hatred.

 

"Well let's get going then!" Charlie yelled and everyone nodded. Kasu turned to their group and started to analyse the two of them properly. Not to be creepy or anything, they just hadn't gotten an opportunity to actually see what they looked like that well.

 

Ann had light brown hair in an ombre towards a turquoise, her eyes looking to be almost the same shade. She had a pastel yellow dress with a white long sleeved shirt underneath along with black leggings and trainers. Matthew had sandy brown hair with blue eyes. He had a red t-shirt and navy blue shorts with combat boots. The two of them seemed to also scan over Kasu. So they all didn't know each other that well - apart from maybe Ann and Matthew.

 

"So Kasu. where should we start?" Matthew proposed. 

 

"Actually - quick question, would you mind going into more detail about that series?"

 

"From the Dreams."

 

"Yeah that!" Both Matthew and Ann said at the same time. Then they proceeded to have an argument about jinxing and stuff like that before Charlie yelled at them.

 

"So, then Kas. Explain?" Matthew finished. Ann glared at him, but also nodded.

 

"Well, there's a corrupt government called FROG." Kasu started to explain before Matthew interrupted.

 

"What's it stand for? Every cool government has a meaning. Like - " Ann shoved her hand over his mouth and asked them to continue. They started to draw FROG's logo - a heart with four wings.

 

"FROG stands for For Reaching Our Goals. They're working towards granting everyone's wishes when they wish upon a shooting star." The two of them both thought that was interesting, so they continued. "However, the government gets crueler and crueler after one of their agents, Francis Shun Aoi, takes up a wish to kill someone. This is against the government's rules and so they have to be careful about it. They fulfill the wish and the person who originally asked for the wish is pleased and basically hires Francis as their personal assassin. It gets to the point where they take over multiple agents and soon manage to command FROG into the government that they want. No more fulfilling innocent wishes, they're fully willing to straight up murder, bomb or do anything else crude that people want and that's pretty much the first song in a nutshell." 

 

Ann and Matthew both looked shocked. They didn’t blame them, honestly. It was their second favourite song in the series apart from the fourth one. That one was packed full of suspense and drama and they loved it.

 

"I think I saw that in a tweet once..." Ann mumbles under her breath before speaking clearer. "So what happens next?" 

 

"The next song is focused on a group of people who come together to try and defeat FROG. This group is called Rain which doesn't really stand for anything, but the leader says that it's based of an acronym for Restoration At Innocent Negotiations. However, said leader is actually Sophie Avadonia, the person who hired Francis in the first place." Matthew fake gasps. "Sophie had heard of the group and wanted to take it down. She managed to work her way in and eventually reach leadership. This meant that she had total control over both FROG and Rain."

 

"Question, does anyone know she's both?" Ann asks. They shake their head.

 

"Not exactly, but that's where the main character, Lucette Koharu Osanne comes in. She's working for Rain and is suspicious of Sophie and her ulterior motives. She thinks that she has some ties to FROG, but isn't sure where." 

 

"Hold on. This sounds similar to our situation here doesn't it? Lucy here sounds like us and Sophie sounds like Lome. Lucy thinks that Sophie is behind something - FROG - but doesn't know for certain. We think that Lome is behind the brainwashing but we don't have the proof." Matthew raised a good point. Lucette's situation did sound rather similar to theirs right now. 

 

"Holy shit, Matthew. That's a good point. You're good at this message thing." Ann replied. Matthew's face blushed a light pink before he said for them to carry on. And carry on they did, but with this new information in hand.

 

"So Lucette decides to go on a quest to try and find the proof she needs to get Sophie in the ground once and for all. She makes up a team of six people and they set out across the land. That's the second song, but it also focuses on Lucette's backstory and her relationship with Rain. Then the next song is about the team, there backstories and the journey they make together. There's Yuko Axel, a mage with a strange sense of humor, Chikako Marilou, a bard who tagged along just to come along with her crush, but eventually develops a crush on Yuko and Laurette Yoshiko, a dancer in search of her own goals and only comes along to try and reach them. Then there's Akio Elouan, a rookie in search of finding their family and Rémy Nathanaël - I think that's how you say his name - a bartender and very lucky with the ladies. He's the guy Yuko had a crush on." Rain started to write down all the characters names and a small description of them as well. 

 

"This makes me glad you're covering the characters for this series Kasu!" Matthew sighed. "That's a lot of characters and is this just the basic team?" They nodded and he groaned.

 

"So what happens on their journey?" Ann chimes in. "Because that's the main thing of this story not how many girls Remy manages to turn gay." Matthew snorted at that and Kasu couldn't help laughing.

 

"They bump into many fantasy monsters and have to defeat them using weapons and magic. At one point, Akio gets severely injured and the team has to halt their travel to find a doctor. They manage to find one, Yannic Kohaku, who manages to heal Akio. They can't heal them all the way however, and Akio has to get their left leg removed. This drives the team to bring down Sophie even faster to try and avoid even more injuries." Ann looks incredibly sad and Kasu can't blame her. They really liked Akio, as they were a great character plus they could relate to them. If Lome had killed off Akio, they wouldn't have been the only one to revolt. (There was a protection squad and they were ready to fight.)

 

"Now tell me does anyone die?" Kasu shock their head. Matthew looked a little bummed, but asked them to continue.

 

"At the end of the third song they reach the final area, but it's left on a cliffhanger. At the start of the fourth and final song, they are horrified to find that Sophie was tracking their journey and had prematurely sent soldiers to go and kill them. They manage to defeat the soldiers, with their knowledge from killing all the monsters and eventually overthrow Sophie and FROG returns to it's glory days."

 

Matthew and Ann start to clap and cheer. They are actually kind of impressed by themself, they had managed to sum up a series of four songs and convoluted historys into a few paragraphs. That was pretty cool! 

 

Especially, considering all the things they had left out considering the last song. After they managed to overthrow Sophie and FROG, Lucette takes over as the leader of Rain and her team disbands. They still remain friends and Yuko and Chikako build a healthy relationship together. That seemed all fine and dandy right? Wrong. Lucette turns out to be a megalomaniac and lets the power run to her head. She makes Rain into a worse group than FROG was before her team comes back together to bring her down in a heartfelt finale. 

 

She is taken down and she realises her mistakes. She teams up once again with the team and they carry on with their quest in the beginning  - taking down evil governments and monsters.

 

Her final words to the listener always made them cry whenever they heard it. "If you fight monsters, you will become one yourself." The emotion behind that line and the image behind it was heartbreaking. Lucette realised her mistakes and wanted to become better than what she was, but at the same time, she realises how easy it is to slip into a megalomaniac. That wasn't what she wanted. She only wanted to fight for what was right. It was a powerful series and they were glad to see so many people agreeing with them both online and in real life.

 

"So that's it. Pretty much. There's some things that happen after that, but that's not too important. Should we get started now?" They both nodded and the three of them began to actually write things down. However, things got complicated fast.

 

"Do you remember all the lyrics off by heart Kas?" Matthew asked, tapping a pen against his paper. They quickly ran through the songs in their mind. 

 

"I only really remember the fourth song and the first. The second and third are a bit shabby to be honest." Kasu replied. Matthew banged his head against the table groaning, before getting up from his chair and tapping on Selene's shoulder. He askes hir something before zie put a hand on their head and tilt it slightly, thinking. Zie shakes hir head, before getting out of hir chair.

  
"Attention!" Zie yells. 


	8. Chapter 8

Everyone's heads jerked upwards. "We have a problem on our hands. Thank you to Matthew for bringing this up."

"Matthew did something useful for once?" Alex said. Felix glared at him. "Ouch. Geez. Continue!"

"We don't have the lyrics on hand so guess where we're gonna have to go?"

Cue nearly everyone groaning. Felix looked rather happy.

"The library?" Holly asked. Selene nodded.

Penny screamed. "No! That place was horrible! Plus Simon got us kicked out last time!"

"You mean you got us kicked out last time!" Simon yelled back. Charlie slammed her fists on the table.

"No both of you got us kicked out!" She yelled at the two of them. “You two couldn’t stop screaming at each other, so they had to kick us out!” Well then. Clearly the twins didn’t know the meaning of a quiet place. It was a wonder they weren’t kicked out quicker, in that case.

“Hold on, if you guys got kicked out last time, what makes you think they’ll let you in this time?” They asked. It was puzzling, if they were kicked out why would they be let in again. Oh you were kicked out a day ago? We forgot, come in!

“Kas, people have been let back in after being kicked out like a million times. They’d only keep us out forever if we burnt down a hospital. Which we did, but they don’t know that.” Matthew commented. Charlie glared at him from across the table.

"Shut your trap Alex! Anyway, Oliver's mom is one of the librarians, so she can help us in. Now everyone get your coats and take a piss because we're going! Also take your papers." Charlie said. The last part also made quite a few people blanche - and by that they didn't mean the fact that she had commanded them to take their papers.

Kasu didn't really have anything on them apart from their sweater and jeans, but they had lost their shoes. Asking Selene, zie managed to direct them over to where their shoes where. Zie was really nice! But zie had taken off their shoes without their permission. That was an acceptable, sin however. (When was shoe stealing a sin?)

As they didn't really have much to prepare, they were ready to go in no time. But unfortunately, nearly noone was also done. Felix was done however and without Alex, they felt safe to look at them. They had short curly blonde hair with purple, blue eyes. That felt strangely similar to someone they had seen before - and then it hit them. Lavender.

She had the same blonde hair and eyes. Were they related? Probably not, but it was a weird coincidence. They had a strange crimson hat decorated with piano keys and an outfit with a white and rainbow poncho that hanged just above their waist. Hoping they had at least a shirt underneath, they looked at their bottoms, grey shorts with white knee length socks and red trainers.

Wow, they more looked like an anime character than Kasu. Wow. They would've started to talk, but then Alex came out of the bathroom. He strutted over to them and used their poncho as a towel. They didn't seem distressed and let him do his stuff. Thankfully, the action had revealed that under their poncho was a white dress shirt. Thank the gods he wasn't naked.

"Hey Kassy." Alex chimed, walking over to them and holding out a hand. "I don't think we've properly met. Alex Field." Kasu shock his hand.

"Casper Melaglal, but call me Kasu." Alex snorted. 

"Wait your name isn't Kasu? It's just a nickname?"

"Well duh. Who'd call their kid Kasu? It sounds weird." They replied. It was kinda a weird name, but that was why they liked it so much. It gave them uniqueness, plus it removed the awkwardness of someone calling out your name, but meaning someone with the same name as you. That was always an awkward feeling.

"Anyway this is Felix Bruntly. You probably already knew that but I'mma repeat it." Alex also said, but that had sparked their interest enough. 

"Does Felix have a younger sister?" They asked. Alex turned to Felix and they nodded.

"Her name's Lavender." Holy shit.

"Hey I know Lavender! She goes to my friend Rain's taekwondo place. That's awesome." Felix looked excited to.

That was pretty awesome, but at the same time unbelievable. Felix was a lot nicer than Lavender - if they were being honest. If Lavender was in the same room, then that sentance would be a lot differant. Then they decided to look over Alex. He had dark messy auburn hair with bright green eyes. His outfit was a lot simpler than Felix's, wearing a white with blue sleeved shirt with grey shorts and an army jacket, along with trainers. Everyone pretty much wore trainers. They should name it The Trainers Dan instead. (The TR41N3RS Dan - No they are not sorry)

Then Holly and Oliver came out from getting their coats, allowing them to get a look over the two of them again. They hadn't really seen the two of them that much.

Holly had her brown hair in a bun and her brown eyes were sparkling from under her glasses. She had a navy blue coat with a fluffy hoad and a knee length skirt with white tights and black Mary Janes. She smiled at Kasu before dragging Oliver behind her.

Oliver had black hair that hung around his shoulders. His coat was also a navy blue but had no fluff and was also spotted. He also had grey trousers and trainers, smiling at Kasu as Holly dragged him along, laughing. Dorks.

Then Ann and Matthew came out along with Charlie and Selene. After a few moments, Simon walked out from getting his coat and sent a glare in their general direction. Five seconds later, Penny struter out and lifted her middle fingers, spun in a circle before landing infront of the group.

"Lets go already!" She said.

"Yeah!" Alex chanted. Selene walked over to the door and opened it, revealing a clear sky with a bright sun outside. The place looked unfamiliar, with trees and a stone path. 

"You've been outside before havn't you?" Charlie teased.


End file.
